For all of their early success containing Vancouver’s dangerous Sedin twins, Daniel and Henrik, the Kings were always cautious in their optimism about the first-round playoff series.

On Wednesday, it became clear why.

Henrik Sedin scored the winning goal, Daniel Sedin added three assists, and the Canucks won 6-4 at Staples Center to even the best-of-seven series at two games apiece.

“We have geared ourselves up for a long series,” Kings forward Ryan Smyth said. “We know it was not going to be easy, they are a fighting team, and so are we. We are geared up, we are ready for it.”

Embattled Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo shook off a slow start to make 22 saves and got support from six different goal-scorers. Drew Doughty, Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar and Wayne Simmonds scored for the Kings, who got 31 saves from Jonathan Quick.

The series resumes with Game 5 in Vancouver on Friday.

The Kings’ problem Wednesday was not how they started.

Of the five goals scored in the third period, four belonged to the Canucks, who clearly benefited from a switch of right wings. Agitator Alexandre Burrows, the team’s leading goal-scorer during the regular season, traded places in the third period with Mikael Samuelsson, the Canucks’ leading goal-scorer in the playoffs.

Samuelsson joined the Sedins and, on their second shift together, he scored his fifth goal of the series to pull Vancouver even at 3-3. The same trio was on the ice again when Vancouver took its first lead of the game on a Sami Salo slap shot at 12:16.

Though Simmonds got the goal back 62 seconds later, trying the game at 4, it was merely a prelude to Henrik’s heroics.

With less than three minutes to play, the speedy Swede eluded Sean O’Donnell through the offensive zone after taking a pass from his twin brother. With only Matt Greene standing between himself and Quick, Henrik Sedin fired over Greene’s stick and past Quick – the first goal of the series for the NHL’s leading scorer in the regular season.

“They are a transition team,” Smyth said. “We have talked about this at the start of the series and throughout the series. They thrive on that kind of stuff, and it showed. Time and space, they take full advantage of that. You have to make sure you are above their third guy, and above the pocket. In this case, we got caught.”

For the first time since Game1, the Kings scored first. For the millionth time in the series – at least it seemed that way – the goal came on the power play. With Michael Grabner serving a penalty for too many men at 13:26 of the first period, Doughty took advantage of sloppy glovework by Luongo to open the scoring, angling a loose rebound between the goalie’s legs to give the Kings a 1-0 lead.

Vancouver evened the score at 3:36 of the second period using a sequence out of the Kings’ playbook. Steve Bernier set up shop in front of Quick, who could not see Christian Ehrhoff’s blast from the right point that made it 1-1.

When Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa was whistled for hooking 67 seconds later, the Kings had a golden opportunity to tie the game. Sure enough, Brown converted his team’s sixth straight power play, burying a hard one-timer from the slot at 5:56.

The Kings were a perfect 3 for 3 on the power play Monday in Game 3, a 5-3 victory. But after going 2 for 2 to start Game 4, the streak ended when the Canucks killed a high-sticking infraction on Jannik Hansen at 5:22 of the second period.

Less than a minute later, Vancouver had its second goal. Pavol Demitra led a 2-on-1 breakout and opted to shoot, fooling Quick into opening up the 5-hole and sending the puck between the goalie’s legs at 15:35.

The Kings’ man-advantage drought didn’t last long, however. Though not technically a power-play goal, Quick had been pulled for an extra attacker at 17:09 of the second period while a delayed penalty against Vancouver was in effect.

Simmonds and Kopitar took advantage, with Simmonds sending a puck into the crease for Kopitar to tip it up and over Luongo, giving the Kings a 3-2 lead heading into the second intermission.

Perhaps their best attribute during the regular season, the Kings never lost in regulation when leading after two periods – one of only five NHL teams that can make that claim. Conversely, the Canucks led the league with 11 wins when trailing after two periods. Something had to give – and Wednesday it gave in favor of Vancouver.

“We’ve done it many times during the season where we had to dig one out in the third,” Luongo said. “Obviously it was not a pretty one, but obviously it was a huge one.”

With the Kings trailing 5-4, Quick watched the game’s final minute from the bench. He was helpless to stop a long-distance, empty-net goal by Ryan Kesler that provided the final score with 17 seconds left.

After Games 2 and 3, the Canucks were the team searching for answers on how to get their top line going. Now it’s the Kings who will need an answer for the Sedins before Game 5.

“We want to take the positive side of this game and build on it going into game five,” Kopitar said. “We have done it in their building already, we won Game 2 there. We know we can do it.”

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.